KISS has released their 20th studio album, "Monster" described in a press release as a "12-track, straight-ahead rock 'n' roll album," Frontman/guitarist Paul Stanley who produced the new disc said that he wanted "Monster" to be a a true collaboration, and, wouldn't stand for anything but a cohesive, focused band album.

"Ultimately, anytime you involve outside people, you're diluting what the band does, and you're also leaving some loopholes for people to not do their job," he said. "And it was important to me, and basically a deal-breaker in terms of producing the album, that the band wrote all the material."

He continued, "When you have outside writers, it kind of means sometimes that you don't have to do any work. You have somebody else write a song and you slap your name on it. So it gives you the ability to go off and do other projects when you should be taking care of your home. So I wanted to avoid those kinds of pitfalls."

I wonder if he was referencing all of the wheeling-and-dealing with merchandising that Gene Simmons is so famous for?

Hmmm...